Jan 22 Xiaomi's India push

China’s Xiaomi is looking to build out its retail network in India in a move aimed at overtaking smartphone market leader Samsung. The cool mobile phone maker only launched in India three years ago, initially selling its devices online via flash sales, but tied with Samsung in the smartphone market at 23.5% market share in the third quarter of last year.

The company opened its first Indian Mi Home physical store last May and now boasts 17 outlets in the country. It is looking to have 100 Mi Home stores by mid-2019 and also plans to add further multi-brand outlets stocking Xiaomi kit to the mix.

The trend looks good for Xiaomi – it makes close to half of the smartphones purchased online in India, while the top three smartphones sold during 3Q16 in India were produced by Xiaomi.